Frozen Love
by Ivvic
Summary: Matt confesses his love and Tai freaks out and runs away. Then Tai gets in trouble, will Matt still help him? Taito!!!!
1. Default Chapter Title

"Tai, I love you," Matt told the boy as he looked away.  
  
"What! Matt, I'm not gay! I hate you, get away from me!"  
  
With that Tai ran off into the woods. With a sigh and biting back tears Matt ran after him.  
  
"All right, you made your point but we still have to stick together! It's the only way we'll find the others," Matt yelled after Tai.  
  
"I'll find the others on my own, you fairy!" Tai yelled over his shoulder.  
  
"Watch where you're going!!"  
  
Tai tried o stop but his momentum send him tumbling forward and he pitched head first over a cliff.  
  
"TAI!" Matt screamed. He ran to the cliff and carefully looked over to see how bad it was.  
  
It wasn't much of a cliff, five feet underneath Matt there was a swollen river. The water looked cold, Matt could see chunks of ice floating downstream.  
  
"Where's Tai?" Agumon asked scaring Matt so badly he nearly tumbled into the waters below him. The two digimon had come running when they had heard Matt's last scream.  
  
"You two get a fire started somewhere where I can to onto the bank," Matt instructed.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Gabumon asked as he watched Matt strip off his clothes.  
  
"I'm going in after him."  
  
Matt dove into the river and began his frantic search.  
  
The digimon gathered up Matt's clothes and started looking for a spot to set up camp. They saw a bridge in the distance and hurriedly made their way to it.  
  
Matt surfaced in the river, looking around for any sign of Tai. He let the current carry him downstream a little bit before diving again.  
  
"Tai! T-tai!" Matt yelled, his teeth chattering from the icy bite of the frozen waters.  
  
Matt forced himself to quit thinking about the cold and slipped under the waters.  
  
On the bank Agumon and Gabumon were watching Matt reappearing time after time, going back under seconds later. There was never a sign of Tai. Gabumon looked on worriedly as he patted Agumon's shoulder. He had started crying silently.  
  
They had been watching Matt search for fifteen minutes now.  
  
"Matt! Come back, he's gone. All you can do now is get yourself sick," Gabumon called out as Matt's head reappeared.  
  
Matt heard his concerned digimon but ignored him, he had to find Tai, he had to.  
  
When Matt was swimming underwater his hand came in contact with something but he was forced to back up for air. As soon as he could he swam back to the spot, grabbing Tai's limp figure.  
  
It took Matt a minute to untangle Tai from the branch that had snagged his clothes, but he soon hauled the boy to the surface.  
  
"Tai!" the digimon yelled as they saw that Matt had him. Quickly swimming to shore he laid the lifeless boy down near the blazing fire.  
  
Shivering violently Matt struggled to find some life in the blue tinged boy.   
  
"Matt, he was down there too long." Again Matt ignored the voice, too wrapped up in his thoughts to even give it a name. His mind scrambled for an answer, what could he do? Suddenly the CPR course from health class popped into his mind.  
  
Matt tilted Tai's head to clear the airway and breathed into him three times. He waited a few seconds and did it again before doing five chest depressions.  
  
Then three more breaths. Matt was sobbing as he worked, it wasn't working. It wasn't working!!!  
  
Matt lent above Tai about to do some more breaths and saw that his tears were tripping onto Tai's face, making it look like they were both crying. Three more breaths. Matt counted his heartbeats, holding his breath. *One* He felt horrid, he was crying to hard to be able to breathe on his own properly. *Two* let alone well enough to help Tai anymore.  
  
*Three* He started on the chest depressions. *Four* *Five* Tai still wasn't responding. *Six* Matt did the depressions once more. *Seven* *Eight* There was a gurgling sound that came from Tai's throat by Matt must have imagined it. *Nine*  
  
Suddenly Tai started coughing up the water in his lungs and began breathing weakly. Nine heartbeats, nine had always been Matt's lucky number. It was almost as if it were an omen.   
  
But for good or bad?  
  
Tai was still unconscious and Matt didn't know how to help him. Still crying softly Matt brushed some of the wet clinging hairs off Tai's face. Tai was ice cold.  
  
"Why isn't he waking up?" Agumon asked. "Why is he blue?"  
  
"Hypothermia," Matt croaked out the word as he realized it. "Help me get him out of his clothes and dry."  
  
The digimon did so and also helped get Tai into a sleeping bag. Ten minutes later he seemed even colder to the touch then before.  
  
"Can't we do anything for him?" Agumon wailed afraid his friend was dying.  
  
"Get into the sleeping bag with him. In health class I think they said that a person with hypothermia has completely lost all body warmth, so you have to share body heat until their bodies can start regaining the heat.  
  
Matt got back into his clothes and sat shivering by the fire. He couldn't help but notice Tai wasn't even shivering his body was so cold.  
  
"Why don't you get in there with him?" Gabumon asked sitting next to Matt. "You'd warm him up better and faster because you are more his size then we are.  
  
"I doubt Tai wants to wake up and find both of us naked in a sleeping bag."  
  
"So keep your clothes on."  
  
"It doesn't work as well that way," Matt explained. Suddenly sobs overtook Matt and he buried his face in his knees and knotted his hands in his blond hair.  
  
"Matt, it's all right. You saved Tai, he is going to live now," Gabumon said thinking that was what was upsetting Matt.  
  
"That's not it," he muttered thickly after a minute.  
  
"Then why are you crying? TK and the others will be all right as well you know." Matt shook his head and got up from the clearing and went to lean against a tree.  
  
"Matt, tell me what is wrong," Gabumon said softly lying a paw on Matt's bare upper arm. "Come on, you are almost as old as Tai is." He pulled Matt back to the fire.  
  
Matt lay on the ground, staring into the flames, still shivering uncontrollably and trying to stop the tears. He wished he didn't feel so cold, and he didn't believe it came entirely from his polar bear swim.  
  
"Matt, get into the sleeping bag with Tai, you'll both be able to warm up," Gabumon suggested again.  
  
"No!"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Tai wouldn't want me to."  
  
The digimon sighed and went to talk with Agumon. Tai was still out cold.  
  
After a few minutes conversation the digimon switched places and Agumon went to talk with Matt.  
  
"Matt, you should go lay down with Tai."  
  
"No."   
  
"Why not?" 'My doesn't this sound familiar' Matt thought scornfully to himself.  
  
"He hates me!" Matt said painfully aware that tears had started slipping down his cheeks.  
  
"Tai doesn't hate you. Just because you two fight a lot doesn't mean anything."  
  
"I know he hates me because he told me so," Mat informed the digimon.  
  
"I'm sure he didn't mean it."  
  
"I sure he did. He yelled at me that he, he h-hated me and to get away f-from him be-fore he ran off and, and fell in the river," Matt choked out between sobs.  
  
"He was upset, he only said those things because of that. You are his best friend Matt, he didn't mean it."  
  
"We aren't friends any longer," Matt muttered darkly forcing his tears to stop by sheer will.  
  
"Matt you have to help him keep warm, we're too small to do it." There was a long pause. "Matt I'm afraid Tai might die if he doesn't get warm. Please help him," Agumon said choking on tears.  
  
"Please Matt, he's so cold," Gabumon pitched in from where he lay next to Tai.  
  
With a sigh Matt sat up and mechanically stripped to his boxers. Then ever so carefully as to not touch Tai he slipped into the sleeping bag after Gabumon scrambled out.  
  
Matt was exhausted from fishing Tai out of the water and fell asleep in minutes.  
  
The digimon talked to themselves, keeping watch over their friends.  
  
"I wonder what they were fighting about, that it hurt both of them so much," Agumon said. Neither of them said anything for a while, trying to see what could have been so upsetting.  
  
"I don't think Tai knew how much his last words were going to hurt Matt so much. He wouldn't have said them otherwise," Agumon said, unable to believe that Tai who was always so happy could be so cruel.  
  
"I think he did. I think Tai knew exactly how much they would hurt, that's why he said them. I wonder what Matt did to upset Tai so much."  
  
The pair didn't talk after that. By the time they had gone to sleep Matt had woken up and was keeping 'watch' from his spot in the sleeping bag.  
  
Half an hour later Matt was staring up at the stars crying freely, unafraid to show his tears now that everyone was asleep.  
  
*~&~/ / /*~&~/ / /*~&~/ / / *~&~  
  
Tai looked through slitted eyes at the painfully bright stars above him. His head was throbbing, that was the first thing that he noticed. The second was that he was freezing.  
  
Why was he so cold? And why did he have the feeling that he was slowly warming up. Tai held back a sigh, he didn't want to move, but he didn't want to get up. He wondered vaguely where the others were.  
  
Oh, that was right. They had been separated, but he had met up with Matt and Gabumon. Matt who had told him….  
  
Tai's thoughts were interrupted as he heard a quick intake of breath from right beside him and saw Matt lying next to him, in the same sleeping bag no less.  
  
"You're awake," Matt stated in a cold tone.  
  
"Get away from me."  
  
"My pleasure," Matt said as he quickly escaped the sleeping bag.  
  
"Why are you only wearing your boxers?" Tai asked in a suspicious tone.  
  
"It doesn't matter." Tai slowly sat up and realized rather quickly that he was wearing less then Matt.  
  
"What happened to my clothes!" Tai demanded. "Did you do anything to me while I was out of it?"  
  
"Keep quiet!" Matt snapped angrily. "You'll wake up Gabumon and Agumon, they need their rest. You feel in the river, so your clothes were wet. You remember what I told you, but not nearly drowning," Matt said disgustedly.   
  
"I remember falling, I must have hit my heat before I hit the water," Tai shot back. Tai started to stand but he couldn't even get to his feet.  
  
"You should rest," Matt said. "Continue getting warm."  
  
"How'd you know I was cold?" Tai asked feeling a little shocked. He managed to get to his knees and start inching away from the small clearing.  
  
"You have hypothermia. You were underwater for about 15 minutes."  
  
"Shouldn't I be dead?" Tai asked.  
  
"I guess. I'm not kidding Tai, get back in the sleeping bag before you get even sicker."  
  
"I'm doing fine on my own," Tai said stubbornly still crawling. Matt stayed where he was standing and watched the slow progress.  
  
"Tai! Agumon yelled happily rushing over to his friend. "You should really stay near the fire." Agumon managed to tug Tai back to where he was supposed to be but Tai just started crawling away again. "What are you doing Tai?"  
  
"I have to go somewhere," Tai muttered flushing a bit. Matt raised an eyebrow and threw a branch on the fire, reviving the dying flames.  
  
"You can't go anywhere Tai," Agumon said.  
  
"I have to," Tai snapped, frustrated that Agumon was trying to keep him at the camp. "I'll be back."  
  
"No Tai, you can't go anywhere, not when you can't even walk," Agumon said trying to help Tai to a kneeling position.  
  
"Oh well," Tai said. "I'll crawl if I have to." Agumon frowned as he watched his friend struggle to leave the camp. He wished he could do something to help him.  
  
Tai finally made it to the edge of the forest in about twenty minutes. It hadn't been ten feet and Matt had watched every inch Tai had went although he pretended not to. He threw another branch on the fire, causing flames to leap up.  
  
Tai sat leaning against a tree panting and shivering. He was so tired, all he wanted to do was get back to the sleeping bag and not wake up for a week. But first he had to get back there which was a task in itself. Tai steeled himself and started crawling back.  
  
Matt sighed and quickly crossed the short distance and offered his hand to Tai. Tai looked at the offending hand scornfully and continued to crawl.  
  
"This would be so much easier for you if you would just accept my help."  
  
"I don't need any of your help," Tai spat out.  
  
"Obviously you do," Matt said. He scooped Tai into his arms despite the protests and carried him to the fire.  
  
"Let go of me you fag!!" Tai yelled struggling to get out of Matt's grip.  
  
Matt literally dropped Tai when he reached the sleeping bag and Tai hit the ground with an 'oomph!' Matt gathered up Tai's now dry clothes and threw them at Tai.  
  
"Don't worry Tai, you wont get any more help from me."  
  
Tai grinned in a barbaric fashion and quickly pulled on his clothes dispite the difficulty of not being able to raise him self off his knees.  
  
"I'll take first watch," Matt announced. "You three can sleep now."  
  
Ordinarily Tai would have protested, saying that he was perfectly capable of taking first watch, but this time he was just too tired. Agumon and Tai crawled into the sleeping bag and were asleep in minutes.  
  
"Matt, please talk to me," Gabumon asked sitting near the fire, his paws raised to the fire's heat. "Tell me what's going on between you and Tai?"  
  
"I don't want to talk about it."  
  
"All right, but at least tell me what a fag is. I've never heard the word before."  
  
"Just never call anyone it. It's really offensive."  
  
"Then why did Tai call you it."  
  
"Because he's mad at me. I thought I said I didn't want to talk about this," Matt said pointedly.  
  
"Sorry. Are you really never going to help Tai again? He's so sick," Gabumon said unable to keep himself quiet.  
  
"I will help him when he asks for it, and an apology would be nice too," Matt assured his friend. "Now go to sleep."  
  
Matt stated into the depths of the not so distant forest for the rest of the night. 


	2. Default Chapter Title

Part 2  
  
Then next day a little after lunch Matt fell asleep, leaning with his back against a tree. The others weren't very surprised, Matt hadn't woken anybody up for the 2nd watch and had gotten no sleep the night before.  
  
In a way Agumon was glad, because with Matt asleep and Gabumon gathering firewood he could talk with Tai. He couldn't understand what was going on between Tai and Matt, and since Matt wouldn't talk it seemed like the only other person to go to was Tai.  
  
Agumon knew Tai would clear things up, because while Matt clamed up about the way he was feeling or what he was thinking Tai was very verbal. Almost to a fault at times.  
  
"Hey Tai, why are you and Matt fighting?" Agumon asked going to sit next to him.  
  
"Because he's a fairy," Tai stated as if it were obvious. He very slowly sat up, still hardly able to move. He absolutely hated the position he was in. He was helpless, couldn't move if his life depended on it and the only person he could go to for help was Matt!  
  
"He's not a fairy Tai," Agumon laughed. "Where are his wings."  
  
"We aren't talking about the same kind of fairies," Tai said laughing at his digimon's naivetes.  
  
"What kind of fairy is he then? Can he do magic?"  
  
"No, no magic. A fairy is a gay person, a fag."  
  
"Matt said that a fag is a very offensive name. You shouldn't call him that."  
  
"I'll call him whatever he deserves," Tai said angrily. "It's not like he really cares, he knows it's true."  
  
"What is a gay person?" Agumon asked knowing it was pointless to argue with the stubborn boy.  
  
"A gay is a boy who like another boy. Or a girl with a girl, but they are called lesbians."   
  
"What's wrong with boys liking boys, I like you Tai. You're my friend, and so is Gabumon and we're all boys."  
  
"That's friendship liking, liking as in liking liking someone of the same sex is wrong."  
  
"How? How is it any different then a boy liking a girl?" Agumon asked as he struggled to understand the whole thing.  
  
"It's just wrong," Tai said firmly. "It just isn't natural."  
  
"So you don't like Matt because he likes some boy?"  
  
"Not just any boy, the fairy is in love with me," Tai said with a shudder.  
  
"You wouldn't hate it if he were a girl though?"  
  
"Probably not, but he isn't a girl and it's really messed up and nasty."  
  
"You should at least try and be friends with him."  
  
"Why?" Tai demanded as he glared at Agumon.  
  
"Because he saved your life. We thought you were dead, and we tried to get him to come out of the water before he got himself hurt but he refused to quit looking for you. Then he found you, and he kissed you and you coughed up the water and were breathing again."  
  
"He kissed me?" Tai asked disgustedly. Then he realized that Agumon was talking about CPR. Matt had preformed CPR on him. That was a relief, however small it was. Still the thought of Matt's lips on his made him shudder.  
  
"Then he got you warm Tai. He didn't want to, he was crying and saying how you wouldn't want him to be near him because you hated him. It took us awhile to convince him he had to do it," Agumon continued ignoring Tai's outraged comment.  
  
"Just because he saved my life doesn't mean I have to like him," Tai informed Agumon, and he laid back down in the sleeping bag.  
  
"No, it doesn't," came Gabumon's voice. "You should like him because you were friends before you found he was different."  
  
The words seemed to hang in the silence that followed, making Tai very uncomfortable. Finally he had to break the silence.  
  
"I'll quit calling him names if it'll make you two stay off my case," he said. Agumon nodded, still slightly confused, and Tai didn't see the frown on Gabumon's face. Gabumon chose his next words carefully.  
  
"You should do more than that. Thank him, be nice, and quit looking down on him. He might not be directly helping you, but when he keeps the fire going and takes watch to make sure nothing kills us he's also keeping you safe and warm. And if we end up having to run or leave for some reason, he'll be the one that'll help you leave. If a digimon just appeared and me and Agumon couldn't take him on, there would be no way you could get out on your own."  
  
"If Agumon digivolves he can carry me," Tai said waspishly. He did not like the way the conversation was going.  
  
"What if I can't digivolve?" Agumon asked backing up Gabumon in the argument. Tai glared at him, but he couldn't think of anything to say.  
  
"Is there anything else you'd like me to do?" he said finally. He didn't actually expect the digimon to say anything.  
  
"Ask for his help when you need it."  
  
"ONLY when I need it," Tai snapped in some form of agreement. He would only need help when he was in a life or death situation though, he thought grimly to himself. That was the only was he was going to accept let alone ask for Matt's help.  
  
Gabumon looked satisfied and threw some of the firewood he was still holding onto the fire and stacked the rest a safe distance away.  
  
Matt awoke later that afternoon, scared awake by vivid nightmares of drowning. Tai drowning, or him drowning trying to save Tai. In the last part Tai had drowned Matt as he laughed from above the waters, refusing to let go of Matt's shoulders until all the life had left his ex-friend.  
  
Matt had to assure himself that while Tai hated him he wouldn't go to the extremes of killing Matt. As Matt calmed his breathing he noticed that Tai was glaring sullenly off to the left of him. Matt turned his head in that direction and found that Gabumon and Agumon were conversing softly.  
  
He was disappointed that their words didn't carry to him, he would have like to have known what they were talking about, although he had a pretty good idea what it was.  
  
Matt stood up to go see if there were any berries left for lunch, but as he was stretching he heard voices and froze. The other digidestined were making their way towards them. He didn't know whether to welcome their appearance or, well actually there wasn't much of a down side to their showing up.  
  
If they didn't it just meant that he would be stuck with Tai and his obnoxious antics longer. Then again, after seeing Tai's reaction he didn't particularly care to have the others know he was gay.  
  
Apparently Tai had heard the voices as well, but surprisingly enough he didn't seem all that happy about it. In fact he was attempting to crawl into the woods. While his spot had been moved closer to the woods there was no way that he would be able to reach the trees and their sanctuary in enough time to escape.  
  
"Tai! Where are you going now? The others are coming, don't you want to see them?" Agumon asked once again confused by Tai's strange actions.  
  
"I'm leaving. I don't want to deal with the others."  
  
"What are you going to do Tai? Climb a tree and pray they don't notice you. There is no way you could crawl away fast enough," Matt said with a cold, wry smile on his face.  
  
"I, oh hell. Matt, please help me. I can't deal with their pity right now. I don't want them to know how weak I am."  
  
"Since you asked I'll help you. Agumon, Gabumon, you two stay here and met up with the others. All of you stay at this camp then so I can find you later."  
  
"Where are you going Matt? What are we supposed to tell the others?"  
  
"Tai and I still have to talk, so tell them that. We have something we have to sort out with just us. We'll be back by tomorrow morning."  
  
"You can't go off on your own? What happens if you run into any evil digimon?" Agumon wailed.  
  
"We'll be fine. Stay here.""  
  
Matt helped Tai onto his back, piggyback style and started jogging off opposite the direction of the voices.  
  
After awhile Matt slowed his pace, but he kept walking.  
  
"Thank you for helping me," Tai said grudgingly. He didn't want to say the words, even if he was glad Matt was helping them.  
  
"We can't hide you from them until you fully recover you know. It might be weeks until you regain all your strength."  
  
"I know" Tai sighed. "But I just can't deal with them right now. I can do it tomorrow, just not right now."  
  
"All right. I wasn't kidding when I said we needed to talk Tai." Tai sighed deeply.  
  
"I know. Later."  
  
"I know," Matt agreed. He didn't want to talk to Tai until they had stopped, but he didn't want to stop walking quite yet. They were silent from that point on.  
  
Matt kept walking for a couple of hours, his stamina surprising. Even Tai had gotten worn out, and was asleep on his back. Finally though, he had to stop.  
  
Matt gently sat Tai on the ground, trying not to disturb him. It didn't work though.  
  
"Are we there yet?" Tai asked sleepily, not even bothering to open his eyes.  
  
"Might as well be seeing as we weren't headed to any place in particular," Matt said sitting on a fallen log.  
  
"Does that mean we have to talk now?" Tai asked, his voice suddenly weak as it tried to give out on him.  
  
"Yeah, it does."  
  
"All right then. Matt, I'm sorry I called you all the names I did. I didn't think they would hurt you all that much, but Agumon and Gabumon told me they did. Hurt you that is. They also let me know I was being a jerk acting the way I was when you had just saved my life. And risked your own."  
  
Matt was surprised at the short speech and didn't say anything for a minute.  
  
"Thank you Tai. Apology accepted. Look, I know it's going to be really weird having said what I did, but can we please still be friends?"  
  
"Only if you promise not to hit on me" Tai said, a little shocked at his own words. He had grown up some without even realizing it. He now understood that being gay wasn't necessarily evil or wrong, though it still made him a little uncomfortable.  
  
Matt smiled, a genuine smile, the first time in days, at Tai's words.  
  
"I promise not to hit on you," Matt agreed. The boys laughed, the easy laugh of two old friends and things were easy between them for the rest of the day.  
  
*~&~ (so what if this occurred hours before what I just typed?)  
  
"Agumon!" Jyou yelled as he spotted the orange digimon. "Hey guys, I see the others!"  
  
"What others?" Sora asked looking into the tree line. "I only see Agumon."  
  
"Where are the others Agumon?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Uh, Tai and Matt left to go talk. They want us to stay here and wait for them."  
  
"What?" the group exploded.  
  
"So where's Gabumon?" Mimi asked.  
  
"He followed them. Just in case they run into something out there. He made me stay to wait for you guys."  
  
"Why did they go off on their own?" Tentamon asked curiously.  
  
"They had to talk, to sort something out."  
  
"When are they coming back?" TK asked chewing on his lip. He had wanted to see his older brother.  
  
"By tomorrow morning."  
  
"What on earth could they have to discuss when they have had Almost a week to deal with it and expect to have it all sorted out by morning?" Izzy wondered allowed.  
  
"It only happened the other day and Tai hasn't wanted to talk with Matt until now."  
  
"Huh?" Palamon said.  
  
"You know what's going on?" Tentamon asked Agumon. Agumon looked slightly guilty, knowing he had made a mistake in saying that much.  
  
"What happened between them this time?" Sora asked.  
  
"Sora, if they didn't want to talk about it in front of us then maybe they don't want us to know," Jyou said saving Agumon from having to come up with excuses.  
  
"I don't see what's so bad they can't say it in front of us," she pouted.  
  
"Why were you guys keeping a bonfire?" TK asked, his attention having wandered from the discussion.  
  
"Oh, that was so Tai could stay warm."  
  
"Why would Tai need to stay warm? It's hot enough out here as it is," Beumon pointed out.  
  
"Uh," Agumon said as he desperately tried to think of something to say.  
  
"Was he sick?" TK asked. "My mommy used to give me extra blankets to keep warm when I was sick."  
  
Agumon backed up a few steps as the digidestined converged on him demanding to know what had happened.  
  
*~&~/ / /*~&~/ / /~&~*/ / / ~&~*  
  
Matt carried Tai back to the camp quickly, feeling worried. When he had been picking some near by berries when Tai had sunk to the ground from his previous sitting position. Matt had tried to get Tai's attention by yelling at him, but Tai hadn't moved.  
  
Forgetting about the berries in his hands he had rushed back to where Tai was and shook him. Tai still hadn't responded, he was out cold, with a burning fever.  
  
Matt had then scooped Tai into his arms and started jogging back towards camp.  
  
As he half ran Matt berated his self, muttering furiously under his breath.  
  
"This is all my fault, I should have made him stay at the fire, then he wouldn't be so sick. And Jyou could be taking care of Tai. I don't know how to do this, all I've succeeded in doing is getting him sicker."  
  
"Matt, that's not true," came a voice from the trees scaring Matt so badly he nearly dropped Tai. Gabumon came out looking slightly guilty. "I know you wanted us to stay but one of us had to come.  
  
"It's all right," Matt said, picking back up his pace. "Agumon stayed though, right?"  
  
"Yes, he stayed to deal with the others," Gabumon assured Matt hastily.  
  
"Good."  
  
Matt never stopped, he only slowed his pace when he was forced to, and immediately speed up the second he was able to. After a while Gabumon was a long way behind him, unable to keep up and finally the digimon sat down, his legs buckling under the sheer exhaustion.  
  
"Matt! Wait please, I have to rest," Gabumon yelled after his friend. Matt stopped and turned. A look of frustration crossed his face but he went back to where Gabumon was and set Tai on the ground.  
  
Matt saw some near by blue berries and gathered them quickly, giving most of them to Gabumon and eating a few himself.  
  
After fifteen minutes they started walking again, though at a slower pace so Gabumon could keep up.  
  
Finally they made it to the camp, and Matt fell to the forest floor still holding Tai in his arms. 


End file.
